Twelve of the 27 residents of La Hacienda, the skilled nursing facility at La Posada, have been moved to an isolated wing after testing positive for coronavirus.

Thirteen residents tested negative and two tests are pending. Four staff at the nursing facility in Sahuarita tested positive — two caregivers, a nurse and a housekeeper. They will not return to work “until they retest negative and have been symptom-free for at least 72 hours and at least seven days since the onset of any symptoms,” according to La Posada CEO Joni Condit in an email to residents. The staff showed mild or no symptoms, she said.

Of the 12 residents affected, five “showed some mild symptoms (Sunday) and the other seven were asymptomatic,” she said.

All 27 residents and the entire La Hacienda staff were tested Friday evening after staff members at La Posada had earlier tested positive for the virus, two of who had worked directly with residents.

Pima County Health Department provided test kits Friday; results were available early Sunday from

Sonora Quest.

Hit it hard

La Posada was the first facility in the area to button down as the virus spread in March, canceling events, closing shops, asking residents to remain in their homes and cutting off nearly all public access to its 100-acre campus.

Condit said the recent development will lead to tighter restrictions for workers around the campus that is home to more than 750 people.

“Any time you have something like this it’s disturbing to everybody so it puts a heightened concern on everybody’s part,” she said.

Condit said residents on the main campus have not been exposed to workers with the virus, that they are aware.

She said testing everybody, if kits were available, could bring its own problems.

“(The testing) is a snapshot in time,” she said. “If you get a negative and you’re complacent about it, you could turn positive in two days. So, in some ways, I’m not sure if you don’t use it in a targeted manner that it’s useful.”

Condit said she is concerned about the availability of PPE (Personal Protection Equipment), which has been difficult to obtain.

She said an employee “is spending a lot of his day looking for PPE because, while we have some right now, if this goes on for very long we’ll run out of it.”

The Villas at GV

La Posada is among at least three care centers dealing with the virus.

Santa Rita Nursing and Rehabilitation in Green Valley has had several cases, including among staff.

Bobby Larson, owner of The Villas at Green Valley, said they were down to just one case on the campus as of Saturday. He said four people with the virus have died there; three were on hospice care before getting the virus and one went on hospice shortly after diagnosis.